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The Mozilla Public License version 2.0 is out—and GPL-compatible!

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The Mozilla Public License version 2.0 is out—and GPL-compatible!

by
brett
Contributions
—
Published on
Jan 05, 2012 10:53 AM

Earlier this week, the Mozilla Foundation published the Mozilla
Public License (MPL) version 2.0. This is a major update to their
flagship license, which covers most of the Foundation's own free
software projects, as well as others'.

This release caps off a two-year update process. Inspired by the
GPLv3 drafting process, Mozilla launched this effort by publishing a
new draft of the license, and collected feedback on it through the
web, mailing lists, and meetings. Then they progressively improved
the text until it became the final version we have today.

The FSF was engaged throughout this process, especially on questions
about compatibility with GNU licenses. The Mozilla Foundation
recognizes how important this compatibility is to free software
projects, and to date they've made their own projects compatible by
tri-licensing them under the MPL 1.1, GPL version 2 or later, and
LGPL version 2.1 or later. Now they've taken the next step by
including compatibility provisions in MPL 2.0. The
MPL 2.0 entry on our license list and
Mozilla's own FAQ explain those terms in more detail.

This approach to license compatibility is cleaner and more consistent
than releasing software under multiple licenses. It can easily scale
to support even more licenses—and MPL 2.0 does that by adding
compatibility with AGPL version 3 or later. By making
compatibility the default policy, it encourages other projects using
the MPL to follow Mozilla's lead (though they have the option to opt
out if they wish). Large projects that include MPL-covered code will
enjoy simpler license documentation and analysis.

Many people helped shepherd the compatibility provisions through the
drafting process. Chief among them is Luis Villa, who was our primary
liaison with Mozilla and and put in the hard work to find a policy in
line with both Mozilla's goals and the GPL's terms. Gervase Markham
and Mitchell Baker at Mozilla also helped with the policy questions,
while Aaron Williamson and James Vasile at the Software Freedom Law
Center and Richard Fontana at Red Hat contributed to the legalese.
Congratulations to the Mozilla Foundation on their successful drafting
process.